Max Lucado Daily LINGER NEAR THE MANGER - December 7, 2023
Christianity was born in one big heavenly interruption. Just ask the Bethlehem shepherds. They had no expectations of excitement. These are sheep they’re watching. We count sheep to go to sleep! Shepherds, however, treasured the predictable. This was the night shift. Any excitement was bad excitement—wolves, lions, poachers. Just because they wanted a calm night, didn’t mean they would get it.
Luke says, “Then an angel of the Lord stood before them. The glory of the Lord shining around them, and they became very frightened.” We always assume the worst before we look for the best. Good thing the shepherds lingered. Otherwise they might have missed the second verse: “Today your Savior was born in the town of David. He is Christ the Lord.”
I hope you’ll do what the shepherds did—linger near the manger!
Isaiah 28
God Will Speak in Baby Talk
1–4 28 Doom to the pretentious drunks of Ephraim,
shabby and washed out and seedy—
Tipsy, sloppy-fat, beer-bellied parodies
of a proud and handsome past.
Watch closely: God has someone picked out,
someone tough and strong to flatten them.
Like a hailstorm, like a hurricane, like a flash flood,
one-handed he’ll throw them to the ground.
Samaria, the party hat on Israel’s head,
will be knocked off with one blow.
It will disappear quicker than
a piece of meat tossed to a dog.
5–6 At that time, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be
the beautiful crown on the head of what’s left of his people:
Energy and insights of justice to those who guide and decide,
strength and prowess to those who guard and protect.
7–8 These also, the priest and prophet, stagger from drink,
weaving, falling-down drunks,
Besotted with wine and whiskey,
can’t see straight, can’t talk sense.
Every table is covered with vomit.
They live in vomit.
9–10 “Is that so? And who do you think you are to teach us?
Who are you to lord it over us?
We’re not babies in diapers
to be talked down to by such as you—
‘Da, da, da, da,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
That’s a good little girl,
that’s a good little boy.’ ”
11–12 But that’s exactly how you will be addressed.
God will speak to this people
In baby talk, one syllable at a time—
and he’ll do it through foreign oppressors.
He said before, “This is the time and place to rest,
to give rest to the weary.
This is the place to lay down your burden.”
But they won’t listen.
13 So God will start over with the simple basics
and address them in baby talk, one syllable at a time—
“Da, da, da, da,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
That’s a good little girl,
that’s a good little boy.”
And like toddlers, they will get up and fall down,
get bruised and confused and lost.
14–15 Now listen to God’s Message, you scoffers,
you who rule this people in Jerusalem.
You say, “We’ve taken out good life insurance.
We’ve hedged all our bets, covered all our bases.
No disaster can touch us. We’ve thought of everything.
We’re advised by the experts. We’re set.”
The Meaning of the Stone
16–17 But the Master, God, has something to say to this:
“Watch closely. I’m laying a foundation in Zion,
a solid granite foundation, squared and true.
And this is the meaning of the stone:
a trusting life won’t topple.
I’ll make justice the measuring stick
and righteousness the plumb line for the building.
A hailstorm will knock down the shantytown of lies,
and a flash flood will wash out the rubble.
18–22 “Then you’ll see that your precious life insurance policy
wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.
Your careful precautions against death
were a pack of illusions and lies.
When the disaster happens,
you’ll be crushed by it.
Every time disaster comes, you’ll be in on it—
disaster in the morning, disaster at night.”
Every report of disaster
will send you cowering in terror.
There will be no place where you can rest,
nothing to hide under.
God will rise to full stature,
raging as he did long ago on Mount Perazim
And in the valley of Gibeon against the Philistines.
But this time it’s against you.
Hard to believe, but true.
Not what you’d expect, but it’s coming.
Sober up, friends, and don’t scoff.
Scoffing will just make it worse.
I’ve heard the orders issued for destruction, orders from
God-of-the-Angel-Armies—ending up in an international disaster.
23–26 Listen to me now.
Give me your closest attention.
Do farmers plow and plow and do nothing but plow?
Or harrow and harrow and do nothing but harrow?
After they’ve prepared the ground, don’t they plant?
Don’t they scatter dill and spread cumin,
Plant wheat and barley in the fields
and raspberries along the borders?
They know exactly what to do and when to do it.
Their God is their teacher.
27–29 And at the harvest, the delicate herbs and spices,
the dill and cumin, are treated delicately.
On the other hand, wheat is threshed and milled, but still not endlessly.
The farmer knows how to treat each kind of grain.
He’s learned it all from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
who knows everything about when and how and where.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, December 07, 2023
Today's Scripture
Romans 12:1–3
Place Your Life Before God
1–2 12 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
Insight
In Romans 11, Paul writes to the church at Rome about how the salvation available through Christ is offered to everyone: the faithful remnant of Israel (vv. 1-10) and the ingrafted branches of gentiles (vv. 11-24). And the hardened hearts of Israel will be softened so that all will embrace Jesus as Messiah (vv. 25-32). In the concluding verses (vv. 33-36), the apostle can’t help but burst into celebratory song over the wisdom, grace, and power of God.
Chapter 12 is a continuation of his reasoning. It begins with the word therefore, which is a classic literary signal that what’s coming is the result of what was said previously. Because God offers salvation to so many and because His wisdom is beyond scrutiny, those who’ve chosen Jesus should offer themselves as living sacrifices (v. 1), renew their minds so they’re not conformed to this world (v. 2), and be humble (v. 3). By: JR Hudberg
Giving like Christ
Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Romans 12:1
When American author O. Henry wrote his beloved 1905 Christmas story “The Gift of the Magi,” he was struggling to rebound from personal troubles. Still, he penned an inspiring story that highlights a beautiful, Christlike character trait—sacrifice. In the story, an impoverished wife sells her beautiful long hair on Christmas Eve to buy a gold pocket watch chain for her husband. As she learns later, however, her husband had sold his pocket watch to buy a set of combs for her beautiful hair.
Their greatest gift to each other? Sacrifice. From each, the gesture showed great love.
In that way, the story represents the loving gifts the magi (wise men) gave to the Christ child after His holy birth (see Matthew 2:1, 11). More than those gifts, however, the Child Jesus would grow up and one day give His life for the whole world.
In our daily lives, believers in Christ can highlight His great gift by offering to others the sacrifice of our time, treasures, and a temperament that all speak of love. As the apostle Paul wrote, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1). There’s no better gift than sacrificing for others through Jesus’ love.
By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What sacrificial gift have you received from someone that showed Christ’s love? What sacrificial gift can you give to others in return?
In my daily life, dear God, may I show others Jesus by sacrificing my needs for theirs.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 07, 2023
Repentance
Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation… —2 Corinthians 7:10
Conviction of sin is best described in the words:
My sins, my sins, my Savior,
How sad on Thee they fall.
Conviction of sin is one of the most uncommon things that ever happens to a person. It is the beginning of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict people of sin (see John 16:8). And when the Holy Spirit stirs a person’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not that person’s relationship with others that bothers him but his relationship with God— “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight…” (Psalm 51:4). The wonders of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven person who is truly holy. He proves he is forgiven by being the opposite of what he was previously, by the grace of God. Repentance always brings a person to the point of saying, “I have sinned.” The surest sign that God is at work in his life is when he says that and means it. Anything less is simply sorrow for having made foolish mistakes— a reflex action caused by self-disgust.
The entrance into the kingdom of God is through the sharp, sudden pains of repentance colliding with man’s respectable “goodness.” Then the Holy Spirit, who produces these struggles, begins the formation of the Son of God in the person’s life (see Galatians 4:19). This new life will reveal itself in conscious repentance followed by unconscious holiness, never the other way around. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when he chooses— repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If you ever cease to understand the value of repentance, you allow yourself to remain in sin. Examine yourself to see if you have forgotten how to be truly repentant.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R
Bible in a Year: Daniel 5-7; 2 John
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, December 07, 2023
Bringing Back a Loved One - #9628
The funeral plans for Matt were in the works. The Park Service had announced that Matt was one of five people who had been killed in a plane crash on a mountainside in Montana. The funeral never happened. Suddenly, Matt's bereaved parents heard the stunning news: although he had been badly injured, their son, along with one other Forest Service worker, had just been rescued alive, miles from the crash site. Rescue workers at the scene of the crash had concluded that the charred wreckage and the scattered human remains indicated that the crash had been "un-survivable." But amazingly, Matt and his fellow worker hiked for 29 hours, often in subfreezing temperatures, until they reached a highway where a motorist picked them up. One news magazine called it, "A Miracle in the Snows of Montana" (Newsweek, October 4, 2004).
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bringing Back a Loved One."
Many a parent with a child away from God has despaired of them ever coming out of the spiritual death that they've chosen. There may be wreckage, there may be damage, injuries, but it's way too soon to think it's over.
If someone you love is away from the Lord and hope is sometimes hard to hang onto, God has a promise for you today in Psalm 126:5-6. It's our word for today from the Word of God and it's a good one. He says: "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him." All those months and years of praying and weeping and sowing the seed of God's Word in their life will not return un-harvested.
How God does it, when God does it, whether or not you may even be here to see it is totally in God's hands. But you can be sure the Shepherd is persistently, skillfully pursuing that lost sheep you love and that He loves so much more. Remember, He's more concerned about the one who's lost than the 99 who are doing okay.
I can't begin to list the wanderers and rebels that my heart has ached for over the years; so many who had tasted the goodness of God but who wandered away - some of whom are still wandering. Some of whom have gloriously come home to Jesus, now living for Him with the fervor of one who loves much because they've been forgiven much. Through all these battles for people away from Jesus, I've learned a couple of simple principles that are grounded in Scripture. They've been anchors when it looked like there was no hope.
First, remember the difference between a chapter and a book. These dark times in the life of that one you love are not the whole book - they're a chapter, or even a series of chapters. But many a book with sad chapters has had a happy ending. Don't judge the ending by the dark chapters in the middle of a book. Don't decide the game is lost because your team is losing at halftime.
If you think it's over, you may actually contribute to their continued wandering by resorting to nagging. And that's only going to drive them further away. Or by compromise and accepting what can never be acceptable before God. By slowly giving up on your prayer of faith for them, or maybe just withdrawing from them when your unconditional love may actually be their best hope. See, when someone you love is the least lovable, that's when they need your love the most.
Remember, as long as there's breath, there's hope. It just isn't over so long as they have breath to cry out to God for rescue. So keep on fighting for them in the Throne Room of Almighty God with defiant faith - faith that defies the devil's lie that "it's over. What's the use?" Keep on loving them. Keep on gently sowing seed, as the Holy Spirit opens up natural opportunities. Keep on asking God to make their sin unsatisfying to them, and cry out to the Lord, "Do whatever it takes, Lord, within Your will, to bring them to You!"
Jesus is still bringing back, alive, loved ones that had been spiritually given up for dead.